In less than one year, ten girls have been shot or slaughtered in Afrin

By: Muhammad Ali

Afrîn, Southwest Kurdistan

Aug 3, 2005

In less than one year, ten girls have been shot or slaughtered in Afrin region in southwest Kurdistan under the pretext of honor retaliation or preservation. These accidents have brought to the minds of intellectual people the miserable situation that we, the Kurds are living in against the situation of our ancestors, unfortunately, with customs permeated into our society; we have derogated the sacred and the pride position of the Kurdish woman, and violated its right of living and equality.

Undoubtedly, the phenomenon of woman killing under the pretext of preserving the honor of the family, is vicious and notorious idea, The Kurdish woman has always been the source of Kurdish pride and the spine bone of Kurdish family, it is she, who breeds brave Kurds, brings them up and teaches them the virtues of preserving their identity, and sacrificing for the freedom of their people and nation. With all these favors and deeds, should we reward her by cheaply and inhumanly killing her, on the Islamic law and way, by stabbing or beheading her?.

When we look into the history of our nation, we will readily discover that these bad customs have come from the outside of our society, and specially from Islam - the religion that passively effected all aspects of our daily habits, for instance, The Kurdish woman has played a major role in our social, economic and political life, even, the most celebrated Kurdish episode and epics has given a principal role to the woman, and when we look into the love stories of Kurdish people, we will easily see this reality, from Zinê as a main character in the episode of mem û zînê, and Siyaben û Xecê.etc. So has been the Kurdish womans role in the vivid braveness military acts, and Leyla Qasimlo, and Adêla Xanim, who presided CAF clan in Halabcha region for more than fifteen years, in the course of them she was, the leader, the diplomat negotiator and the compassionate mother that enjoyed the respect of her clan men and women, youngers and elders, by the way she was Shex Mahmoud Hafid brother's wife.

But today when we look into our Muslim Kurdish society, not our Ezdis, we will see the miserable situation that the woman has reached, she is deprived from all of her rights, her role is restricted to the daily household duties, such as washing, cooking, and even in its sexual intercourse, she is deprived from having just and natural pleasure, that effects the whole character of ensued life.

Now when we want to diagnose this phenomenon that inflicted Kurdish community, we shall find that there are three major factors that influenced and resulted this phenomenon. First of all, the spreading of Islam among the Kurds, and due to long time of close-minded, created an atmosphere in which the Kurds have lost their original customs and acquired strange and foreign customs that do not suit neither their way of living nor their mentality, and this contradiction caused the emergence of new mixed customs, but of course ascended by the effect of the conquerors.

The second factor, is the profound slumber of ignorance that spread in Kurdistan, after all Kurdish instructional institution were looted and destroyed by the conquerors, from Arabs, Persians and Turks; consequently, the Kurdish instructional system was completely replaced with religious institutions, that do not teach anything but poisonous ideas from despotism, chauvinism to extremism and racial segregation.

The third factor is the ruinous economical situation that struck the Kurdish society, and systematically imposed plans by the Islam state first, and then boosted by the sharers of Kurdistan occupation.  Because it is known that the poverty is the box of all deficiencies, then the all these deficiencies were deeply planted in the Kurdish society and with time passing became an essential part of this society.

Beside these three major factors, we should not forget the negative role of Arabs and Muslims drafted constitutions, these constitutions that save the criminals of what is called, honor retaliators, and the terms that preserve the right of honor retaliators are seen in the constitutions of turkey, Syria, Jordan, Egypt and Saudi Arabia etc.

Along with aforementioned factors, there are brutal people, who exploit  these gaps in the laws of their states,  to fulfill personal interests, there are people who kill their sisters or mothers under the label of honor redressing to steal their inheritance or prevent her form asking for it,  and the ten cases of honor killing that I mentioned above in the Afrin region are all of this kind, non of them stems from honor aspects, all of them related to the matters of inheritance, or girls asking for her fathers properties as a legal right.

In his Book the Kurds, Historical and sociological study the celebrated Russian Kurdiologist, Basily Nikkitin, addresses I think that the Kurdish woman would play a principal role in the renaissance of the Kurdish nation, but with such a miserable situation, I doubt that The Kurdish woman will ever be able to play a tiny role in any future Kurdish resurgence, if she is going to be treated this manner.